The Reel Review
Emma Stone and Steve Carell headline this film about the most watched tennis match in TV history, the epic 1973 battle between top ranked Billie Jean King and former Wimbledon and US Open champion Bobby Riggs. Watched by 90 million people around the world, the match sparked a longtime friendship between the two and helped gain respect for women’s tennis. The husband and wife directing duo of Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks) gets it right, deftly weaving fascinating archival footage into the factually spot-on story to transport viewers into the era. Stone lands an ace as the clever tennis player/businesswoman who started the WTA to protest low pay for women tennis players as she was coming to terms with her own sexual identity.
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